Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-06-11
RAMDLES In JAPAN.
EXPERIENCES IN ATTENDING AN
ORIENTAL MATINEE.
Admission Prices Which all Can
Afford-An Ideal Play with
the Japanese.
Correspondence Rrcorp.uNroS. !
KozI MACH, Japan, April 81, Isl


KoM MACH, Japan, April p, 1887.
/ | began to know what real matinee is
like when got up at s A. NJ. in the very
dim light of an April morning to start for
the theater. 1t is easy enough to make
what is called "a night of it." for one is
apt to drift right along into the wee hours
without being aware of it, but to deliber-
ately set out to make day of it requires
more exertion than ! will often desire to
make, even for the privilege of seeing a
good play, which lasts from A. NJ. to s
p. NJ Taking my usual breakfast of milk.
bread and eggs at the tiny shop where l
go each morning, | doubled the quantity
of proyender, that | might # necessary
stand twelve hours tussle with amuse-
ment, The world is full of what some
Mrs. Malaprop has called pleasure exer-
lions" and | felt the great truth of the
expression as l buttoned my ulster over
my breakfast and trotted away. A Japan
csc never seems to know anything without
asking somebody first, and ten to one he
learns nothing the more for his question.
A japanese friend had promised to have
all in readiness, and having
SPENT FULLY THREE DAYS N INQUIRIES
Among his acquaintance, met me on my
arrival with the information that the plav
began ut = A. NJ. instead of A. NJ, as he
| had been first informed, so, after all my
! preparation, was two hours late; but, re-
membering comforting proverb, hur-
ried away to the theater building near
the University, but, alas upon arriving,
and my friend making due inquiries of a
tea-house woman, We learned that the
doors would be opened in about ten days
| BY this time / was pretty much out of pa
thence, and had to solace myself by going
to the museum to see the ancient palan-
quin Of the Mikados, and give up the
theater for that day at least, making no
my mind not to depend again upon Il ma
tive for information. Hearing Of a theater
which was Just opened not far. from the
Imperial Palace in Kozi Maehi district, /
| started the night before and STAYED at the
house of an American friend. to avoid the
early rising and consequent bad tempers,
for the play was to begin at s a. NJ.
THEATER APPOINTMENTS.
At the proper hour we go down street
lined with tea-houses and, stopping at one,
from which, after drinking cup of tea,
we are escorted to the theater by man
bearing two mats and two cushions. The
mats and cushions are placed in our bare
box, and we sit down in japanese fashion.
| The building is very like barn. The
stage is large, and from it run two walks
across the room to the dressing-rooms.
These walks are on level with the stage,
and separate the lower tier of boxes
| from the pit boxes The boxes in the
pit are separated from each other by
rough ratings, upon which the people walk
IN seeming danger of falling as they go to
or from their places. Back of the pit is a
common place not divided, but where the
! people SIT close together; one similar to it
Is also back of the gallery boxes. A sit
ting place is cents in the common place,
80 cents for pit-box for five people, 40
| cents for box in the lower tier and 50
cents for the best box, which seat comfort
ably four people. The orchestra is on one
side and sort of chorus on the other,
both concealed The curtain is drawn
from the side. Instead of bell two pieces
of wood are clapped together to summon
the new act or the final. The name of this
theater, with a large but neglected garden,
is kiriza, and is novelty, for
ONLY WOMEN ARE ENGAGED
In the representation of the plays. Other
theaters in Tekio have male actors only,
and | am told that it is the custom to have
MI the actors, in one theater, of one sex.
though there is OF course much said in
favor Of mixed companies now and gen
eral leaning toward the European stage.
Just now at theater in the Ueno one
part of "The Forty-seven Rouins is
being played by Doniiro, the greatest
star in Japan. The play is long and di-
vlded into four parts; one part, containing
the less serious action, is played for 4 sea-
son of few weeks at one theater, and then
at another theater the second part is
| played for the same length of time, and so
on till the four parts are presented at four
| different places, the comic being separated
| from the tragic by time and distance in
most heroic manner. The plays at the
Kiriza to-day are to be five in number, and
! the first has already begun when we reach
our box, " Hannano ko en- XII go no shi ia
shi mi is the name of the first piece-a
! tale of the usual melodramatic sort. The
! daughter of Daimio loves a handsome
man servant, and tells her love in most
dolorous accents to the mourniul accom-
paniments of the hidden orchestra with
occasional "asides by the chorus to en-
Tighten the audiencel, until the lover APP
pears walking along the raised stage which
! leads through the auditorium.
THE LOVER, OF COURSE, Is a WOMAN,
But the costume and walk disguise her so
well that can scarcely believe it. Ar
irving at the stage the lover losses 4 sup
possible pebble against the paper wall of
his dear ones house, which like all stage
pebbles strikes the proper place, though
the report is not heard until time enough
has elapsed for sound to travel half a mile
He then enters the garden like Romeo,
and like Romeo enters the house. Old
Daimio has been away on a journey and
returns Just in time to be disagreeable
Man servant is led away to have his head
cut off The audience are in the highest
state of interested excitement, and as the
forlorn heroine toddles forward asking
where they are taking him, an old man
in the pit jumps up and tells her. much to
the amusement of the audience and the
evident shame of his family, who finally
drag him down into the box. Tie curtain
is drawn amid cheers and cries Of " bravo -
or rather earaidzo p and general rush
made for the stage. The old man, who has
bald head and bottle of sake rises and
balancing himself with difficulty on the
rail amuses the waiting people BY going
through pantomine, waving his bottle
until he is again forced to resume his
place, where he falls asleep. A raised box
at the back of the auditorium Is occupied
by man who watches all the time to see
that decency and order prevail, and several
police are stationed above
TO PREVENT PICKING POCKETS,
For the Japanese are much addicted to
making what the Germans call long
fingers" Some soldiers are standing about
with opera glasses, evidently wishing to be
looked at more than to look. Peanut
vendors and the sound of the tack-ham-
mers from behind the curtain quite trans
port me.
| There is a crying baby, as usual, but the
daylight streaming down through the
holes in the roof, and the absence of the
smell OF escaping gas are not reminders of
fhome. The man from the house where we
were supplied with the mats brings us tea
and sponge cake. The incest Of sponge
,saL-a IL IN 10 had in T,,a,, 81 -